page_title: James Coburn
section_title: Cars
hierarchical_section_title: James Coburn / Cars
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Bob Bondurant teaching actor James Coburn how to drive a race car.
context_page_description: James Harrison Coburn III was an American actor. He was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career, ultimately winning an Academy Award in 1999 for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.
  Coburn was a capable, rough-hewn leading man, whose toothy grin and lanky physique made him a perfect tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven, Hell Is for Heroes, The Great Escape, Charade, Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, Duck, You Sucker!, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Cross of Iron. Coburn provided the voice of Mr. Waternoose in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc. In 2002, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries nomination for producing The Mists of Avalon.
  During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Coburn cultivated an image synonymous with "cool" and, along with such contemporaries as Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood, became one of the prominent "tough-guy" actors of his day.
context_section_description: Coburn's interest in fast cars began with his father's garage business and continued throughout his life, as he exported rare cars to Japan. Coburn was credited with having introduced Steve McQueen to Ferraris, and in the early 1960s owned a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso and a Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California SWB. His Spyder was the thirteenth of just fifty-six built. Coburn imported the pre-owned car in 1964, shortly after completing The Great Escape. 
  Cal Spyder #2377 was repainted several times during Coburn's ownership; it has been black, silver and possibly burgundy. He kept the car at his Beverly Hills-area home, where it was often serviced by Max Balchowsky, who also worked on the suspension and frame modifications on the Mustang GTs used in the filming of McQueen's Bullitt. Coburn sold the Spyder in 1987 after twenty-four years of ownership. The car was restored, had several owners and was sold in 2008 for $10,894,400 to English broadcaster Chris Evans, then setting a new world record for the highest price ever paid for an automobile at auction.
  Over time he also owned a Ferrari Daytona, at least one Ferrari 308 and a 1967 Ferrari 412P sports racer. From 1998 until his death, Coburn did the voiceovers for Chevrolet's Like a Rock commercials.
caption: Bob Bondurant teaching Coburn in 1972
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